Many people are under the impression that God gives the gift of clairvoyance, fortunetelling, and things like these. Some feel it is a gift of prophecy -- one of the gifts of the spirit (1 Corinthians 14:1, Romans 12:6). Others just simply believe God endowed them with a special gift to use for helping others. This page is devoted to revealing what the bible says about these matters. And please remember: Test all teachings with scripture.

To begin with, the bible states that God will never give us bad gifts nor try us with sinful actions (Luke 11:11-13, James 1:13). On that note, we can see that the Bible repeatedly tells us we are not to use fortunetelling, clairvoyance, magic spells, omens, spirit mediums, sorcerers, diviners, or those who speak with the dead (Leviticus 19:26, 31, Deuteronomy 18:10-12, Acts 19:19, and Revelation 22:15). These scriptures show us that people who do these things are detestable to God. Because of the broad list in these scriptures, this would include that we refrain from tarot cards, Ouija boards, crystal balls, horoscopes, numerology, palmistry, séances, voodoo, shamans, sorcerers, conjurers, and all other similar things. Since God doesn't give us evil, it stands to reason that He won't give the gift of fortunetelling and sorcery. However, we must understand that fortunetelling is different from the gift of prophecy.

God tells us in the bible that he doesn't resort to fortunetellers to convey information. He will send a prophet from amongst His people if He wants to inform us of something (Deuteronomy 18:14-16). So, what if someone is a seer who claims to be a prophet of God? Then we need to use our powers of reason with the bible.
In Jeremiah Chapter 28 there is the account of a man named Hananiah. He claimed to be a prophet and proceeded to speak in the name of Yahweh. Unfortunately, this man was a false prophet. The things he claimed would happen, didn't. Because he spoke with falseness in Yahweh's name, Yahweh sentenced him to death. This is because Yahweh is a God of truth (Psalms 119:151, Romans 3:4), therefore speaking a lie in His name would be an extreme reproach to Him. Another man, Shemaiah, also tried to speak a lie in Yahweh's name (Jeremiah 29: 24-32), and was also disciplined by Yahweh over it. The bible provides these warnings so we can know the possible consequences of speaking falsely in God's name.
We can tell when we have a false prophet because the individual's words will not always come true according to what was said (Deuteronomy 18:20-22). Since Yahweh is a God of truth, none of His prophecies will fail. Therefore, psychics who make predictions should be severely scrutinized when their predictions fall short in any way. This includes Nostradamus, John Edwards, Jeanne Dixon, and Michele Knight amongst many others. True prophetic word is always with 100% accuracy.
It is also worth noting that many of the psychics in the world also claim they communicate with the dead. As we saw in the scriptures above, such activity is condemned by God (Deuteronomy 18:12). Therefore, even if most of their words do ring true, they are still participating in ungodly activities. God would not give us a gift that He condemns (Luke 11:9-13). These psychics may sincerely believe their gifts are from God anyway because of all the good that can be done with them. However, it is worthy to remember that Satan would prefer us to think this way, as he disguises his unwholesome activities as "light" in order to mislead us (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). Not all who claim to perform signs and omens in God's name are really from God (Matthew 7:21-23). We must take great care to heed the words in the bible.

The bible also shows that those who became true believers turned away from their magic practicing and soothsaying (Acts 19:18-20).

The bible also shows the error of following a supposed prophet or psychic that attempts to lead us away from true worship (Deuteronomy 13:1-5).

The practice of spiritism, magic, and psychic powers are all designed by Satan to detract from our personal relationship withGod. We say this because those activities lead us to search for guidance and answers from humans or other sources, not God Himself. Remember, the bible instructs us to not put our trust in mortal men (Psalms 118:8-9, Psalms 146:3, Jeremiah 17:5), and that we are to cling to God instead (Psalms 9:10, Proverbs 3:5, Isaiah 26:4, Jeremiah 17:7). Men will be found in error, though God will always be found true. Therefore, we need to remove ourselves from Satan's trap of this kind of trickery, and rely solely on God for our guidance.